Tag: Firestone Walker

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Sean Suggests for May 2017

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This month we focus on sours from established breweries. Sometimes chasing new leads us to forget the classics. Well, and one new beer but from a classic brewery.

~LIGHT
Firestone Walker Barrelworks/ Bretta Rose5.3% ABV
“Thirty miles north of Barrelworks lies the fertile Santa Maria Valley. Its warm days and cool marine layer-fed evenings allow for a cornucopia of fruits and vegetables to be grown in its rich soil. One of Santa Maria’s crown jewels is locally grown raspberries. We jumped at the opportunity to ferment fresh local raspberries with one of our Barrelworks creations. Behold Bretta Rosé! A low-alcohol Berliner Weisse style ale, acidified and matured in French oak puncheons for 6 months, is the foundation for this gem. Add 1000 lbs. of fresh raspberries, allow a secondary wild fermentation for 4 more months and voila (!), we have a crisp effervescent concoction, bursting with raspberry perfume and flavor, a rosé color, bracing acidity, and a clean and refreshing finish.”

~MEDIUM
Ommegang/ Pale Sour6.9% ABV
“Pale Sour is an elegant, drinkable sour beer, unique in that it’s not wood-aged. It has a well-balanced blend of sweet and sour. Liefmans is such a historic, iconic brewery and having the opportunity to work with them has been an honor and very enjoyable. Pale Sour begins with a mixed culture fermentation in open copper vats. Aged over several months in stainless tanks, master blenders blend new batches with older ones until the optimal balance of flavors is reached.”

~DARK
New Belgium/ La Folie7.0% ABV
“La Folie, French for “the folly,” is a beer steeped in New Belgium brewing tradition. This wood-aged, sour brown spends one to three years in big, oak barrels, known as foeders. And when the beer finally hits the glass, La Folie is sharp and sour, full of green apple, cherry, and plum-skin notes. Pouring a deep mahogany, the mouthfeel will get you puckering while the smooth finish will get you smiling. Not a beer for the timid, La Folie is a sour delight that will turn your tongue on its head. Find out why it’s considered one of the best sour beers around. “

All of these beers can be found at Sunset Beer Co. (unless they got bought up real quick)

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Firestone goes Surly


In case you did not keep bottles of Firestone Walker’s Parabola since 2012 or don’t have three years worth of the Anniversary blend, then the Surly Goat will be able to make that rare dream possible.

On Thursday, May 4th 6:00PM will have this incredible bounty of beers: (Yes, it is a long list and I left the TBD’s there to make even the most jaded beer snob giddy with possibilities….

– Parabola 2012
– Parabola 2013 (bottle)
– Parabola 2014
– Parabola 2015
– Parabola 2016
– Parabola 2017
– Anniversary XIX
– Anniversary XVIII
– Anniversary XX
– Stickee Monkee
– Pivo Pils
– UDBA
– Bravo
– Easy Jack
– Union Jack
– Fortem
– Bretta Rosé
– Lil’ Opal
– Krieky Bones
– Luponic Distortion
– Helldorado
– Nitro Merlin Milk Stout
– (TBA)
– (TBA)
– (TBA)
– (TBA)
– (TBA)
– (TBA)

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Featured Review – Leo V Ursus – Fortem

We start our featured reviews with the first beer in the Leo Vs. Ursus series. AKA Chronology. AKA Fortem. This series of rotating beers follows on the success that Firestone Walker has with Luponic Distortion.

Here is how the brewery describes the canned beer: “Fortem is a new-age imperial IPA that draws upon a range of influences, all while exhibiting DNA from our own forays into the IPA style. As such, it blends newer hop varieties from the Pacific Northwest and Hallertau, Germany along with pale malt, wheat malt and flaked oats for a full body and rounded mouthfeel. Fortem has been left unfiltered for a full hop impact.”

Pours a clear peach orange color. Stone fruit and caramel in the initial taste. This doesn’t taste hefty like some triple IPAs but it certainly isn’t a sneaky high ABV beer. As it warms some grape notes start to emerge. Has a touch of silkiness in the mouthfeel without sacrificing bubbly carbonation. I feel like this series could be the stronger brother to the Luponic Distortion.

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Featured Review # 1 – Huck Yeah! from Firestone Walker Barrelworks


We start sour March off with the huckleberry infused sour from Buellton’s (and Firestone Walker’s) Barrelworks division.
Huck Yeah! pours a vivid red color. Tart & fruity and buttery aroma. Same notes in the flavor as I take my first sips. Not super sour. Just a bit tart. My dad would have liked the name. Bit bubbly which I think adds to the beer. Huckleberry comes through. Almost like eating a handful of berries. A slight wine barrel note at the end.

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Fortify with Fortem

Back a few posts, I briefly mentioned a new series from Firestone Walker with the name of Leo v. Ursus. Lion v Bear. Now the information on the first release in what is being called a Chronology is upon us.

Fortem is an unfiltered imperial IPA.

Here is the press release info on the beer: “The intent of Fortem is to achieve power through balance, delivering amped-up aromas and mouthfeel while keeping bitterness on a leash. It blends newer hop varieties from the Pacific Northwest and Hallertau, Germany along with pale malt, wheat malt and flaked oats for a full body and a rounded texture.”

Future installments will probably be hoppy, might even come from fan “wish lists” but should have “unifying threads”. So, don’t expect a low alcohol Belgian single.

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On to 005


The wheel keeps spinning and by now the 5th revolution of the Luponic Distortion series from Firestone Walker should be everywhere and will be out until May of this year.

Here are the details on 005. The beer “features one of our favorite new hops from the Yakima Valley in Washington state, supported by a couple of other Pacific Northwest standouts to deliver a complex spectrum of ripe tropical, citrus, and berry fruit aromas. Lead by notes of Pineapple, orange, guava, and mango, meyer lemon, green tea and blackberries round things out.

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Hear, Hear

Maybe some of my bellyaching (literal and figurative) has been heard.

From then next beer on (Bravo, by the way), the Firestone Walker Vintage Reserve barrel-aged beers will be packaged up in 12oz and not 22oz bottles.

That includes the later in the year Anniversary XX1. Considering that many finer beer shoppes allow singles sales, that means more people can taste the beer at a lower price point. Or cellar hoarders can buy more and have better tasting parties down the road. However you slice it, it is a much more manageable portion of a big beer that deserves a small snifter.

Back to Bravo though….

The Firestone folks describe Bravo which “has remained one of the driest beers in Firestone Walker’s Vintage Reserve series of barrel-aged beers, and since day one has been considered a vital component in the annual blending of the Anniversary Ale, balancing out some of the stickier components.”

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Cicerone Cannibal


Anybody who turns down beer education, well, that’s just wrong. It’s not like taking calculus.

So, if you find yourself in the Culver City area on a Saturday you should check out the beer classes that The Cannibal LA is running with Certified Cicerone Julian Kurland. Each Saturday at 5:30

For $25, you get five pours based on that week’s topic. It can be a style or hot topics like IPA’s West Coast v East Coast.
And they have also added two really cool special events to their calendar

1- “On Friday, January 27 at 7pm, The Cannibal LA will host an intimate tasting in the restaurant’s newly opened private dining room, in collaboration with Firestone Walker’s “Jeffers Drops Acid (Knowledge),” a study in acid and acid fermentation in beer from Jeffers Richardson, director of Firestone Walker’s Barrelworks wild beer facility in Buellton, CA. The tasting ($35* per person) will include three different beers from Barrelworks, which will exemplify how perception shapes the sensory perception of wild beers. The class does not include food and should last about 90 minutes. This is the only iteration of “Jeffers Drops Acid” planned for 2017.”

(I have attended a Drops Acid presentation and it is fascinating. You will not see and taste sour/wild ales the same plus Barrelworks beers are awesome)

2- “On Thursday, February 9, The Cannibal LA hosts The Bruery for a four-course pairing dinner featuring a menu from Chef de Cuisine Jude Parra. The pairings will be focused on wine/beer hybrids, a category that is poised to grow exponentially in 2017, and that Kurland is particularly fascinated by. While the menu is currently TBD, the pairings will include the following beers:”

Confession – sour blonde with Riesling grapes, Bourgogne Blanc – sour blonde with Bourgogne blanc (chardonnay) Grues, Rue Sans – sour rye ale with Roussane grapes, Jurassic Gose – Gose (sour wheat) aged in port barrels with Chenin Blanc grapes and Vindictive (formerly Winefication) – bourbon barrel aged stout with Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre.

(Bruery beers pair wonderfully with food and a beer dinner is a great way to try multiple beers that are normally unavailable and kinda pricey)

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Up From the Cellar – Firestone XV Anniversary


To close out 2016, I pulled out my one and only bottle of the 15th Anniversary blend from Firestone Walker from way back in 2011. The barrel-aged blend pours out a hazy NE brown coca-cola color. This doesn’t taste old at all. Big bourbon oak mixed with rum notes. There is a bit of spice here too. Aroma is vanilla and bourbon. There is a little slickness on the tongue but a skosh bit of carbonation counteracts it. Other notes that I am picking out are coconut and leather. There is still alcohol burn here too. But hot chocolate defines this beer for me.

This edition is made up of the following:
Helldorado – Blonde Barley Wine (18% of Blend)
Sticky Monkey – English Barley Wine (17% of Blend)
Bravo – Imperial Brown Ale (17% of Blend)
Double Double Barrel Ale – Double Strength English Pale Ale (13% of Blend)
Good Foot – American Barley Wine (11% of Blend)
Velvet Merkin – Traditional Oatmeal Stout (10% of Blend)
Parabola – Russian Imperial Oatmeal Stout (9% of Blend)
Double Jack – Double India Pale Ale (5% of Blend)

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Now Actually Propagating

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The Propagator in Venice, the Firestone Walker Brewing Company’s SoCal brewhouse is finally brewing with in-company hire brewer Ben Maushardt manning the kettles.

The Propagator pilot brewhouse was supposed to be online the same time as the restaurant and store and be the spot for experimental beers. The small scale German Kaspar Schulz equipment just recently started brewing this month.

Maushardt has been with Firestone Walker for more than two years, and he will be “testing new recipes or running hop, malt and yeast trials for the Paso Robles brewery, he will be producing small batches of wort for our Barrelworks team and making killer Venice-only beers for local patrons.”